Man, you're gonna be catching some crap for having those mirrors on....as if the engine isn't sacrilege enough. lol

 

I sure hope to! Wait until I get over to the local Chevy muscle car dealer and get my stickers for the sides of the scoop! Same "Super Chevrolet Service" stickers I have on the sides of the Austin's Hilborn scoop! And of course I'll need the same decal for the rear window I have in the Burb! The bowtie with "The Heartbeat of America" inside it!

 

Lol I think the ford guys are used to seeing chevy stuff on fords by now. It is fun to hear them whine about it though.

 

I think that's probably true for 50's or earlier Fords, and especially for 30's Fords! I see more 30's Fords with Chevy engines than I see with Ford engines.

 

Well that's because a Chevy motor fits better than a ford. You can get small blocks into early fords without cutting up the firewall. While a most 289 and 302 fords you have to put in a recessed firewall to clear the water pump.

 

Huh? The water pump is on the front of the engine. Chevy engines can be more of a firewall fitment pain due to the distributor being in the back, whereas Fords had it in the front.

 

The water pumps on the fords is what makes them just to long. The for motor that used to reside in my grandfathers 34 ford coupe had a 302 ford in it that had such a nose on for where the pully mounted that it pushed the motor back and requiring a recessed firewall. That's the way the car came when he bought it. Luckily for the recess because there was just enough room to drop a 348 Chevy in there.

 

Well got the brakes bled with the help of my neighbor. Then we took it for a slow run around the block. After a few miles I got into it a bit and she really scoots! When I got right in front of the house I figured I'd lay down a little rubber, and that's when the carnage began! The outter ring came off the harmonic balancer and hit the water pump pulley. Dinged up the gilmer pulley, and shot out the side of the car without touching anything else!
Of course I was pretty startled, and thought I'd torn the driveline out, or broke something badly. It appears the pulley isn't hurt enough that it can't get dressed up with a file and still work, but I'll check it for true to be sure. A new harmonic balancer is in order, and I'll pick that up tomorrow.
I think I may have had a problem from the beginning, as I noticed the timing mark was off 45 degrees when I checked TDC at assembly. But I did some research and was told there were 3-4 different timing marks on 454 balancers, and not to worrry.
On the bright side, the tires can pretty much be roasted at a blip of the throttle, and she wants to wind out easily, but doesn't smooth out until around 2500 rpm's. It was a kick in the rear for about 15 minutes! Steered nice, shifted great, stopped good with 4 wheel drums.

 

Nice and lucky that nothin else got damaged.

 

Oh man, and no video of it either!